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Team News: Bournemouth

Danny Welbeck has joined Troy Deeney on the injury list ahead of the Hornets’ match against Bournemouth on Saturday and José Holebas is suspended, having picked up five yellow cards.

But Quique Sánchez Flores had positive news regarding Daryl Janmaat, who is fit for the fixture, and also Sebastian Prödl, Étienne Capoue and Isaac Success, who have all returned to training with the first team squad.

“About Troy Deeney we are very happy, he’s back on the pitch, not with us but alone, and working with the medical staff. I hope he is recovering quickly,” said the Head Coach.

“He is not with the group, at the moment he is just running with the physios and those guys, trying to recover in a good way.

“[Capoue, Prodl and Success] are training, they came from some injuries but little by little they are training day by day and we are just checking at the moment and we need to wait a little bit more.”

Regarding Welbeck, Sánchez Flores said he was upset to see the striker pick up a hamstring injury at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last weekend and that he has tried to support him this week.

“It’s bad news about Danny Welbeck, we need to check a little bit more and that will happen in the next weeks. I think it’s a hard injury but we need to wait a little bit,” said the Head Coach.

“He was disappointed, he was very sad, and I tried to help him and support him. But the face of Danny Welbeck was always the same. It’s impossible to change the morale, the mood, it will change a lot because he felt he had the opportunity to come back at a good level but now we need to wait again.”

Welbeck’s reintroduction to the team had been handled carefully by the club’s medical staff and this setback is unrelated to his previous injury, according to Sánchez Flores.

“It was not a risk [to play Welbeck] because when we were talking about taking care, we were talking about his ankle. This injury was his muscle, so it was completely different,” he said.

“He’s really fast and to change from zero to run quickly, the muscles can suffer a lot. He’s not playing too many minutes during the season but even during the week he was feeling really good and he didn’t report anything about the injury.”

Although Welbeck is now unavailable and Deeney is continuing to recover from surgery, Sánchez Flores remained positive about the attacking options he has at his disposal.

Gerard Deulofeu was the club’s top scorer last season with 12 goals, while Andre Gray with nine wasn't far behind and Roberto Pereyra netted six times. Of last season’s four top scorers, only Troy Deeney, who scored 10, is currently unavailable.

“We need to trust in the players we have right now because it’s the same players as last year. Gray, Deulofeu and Pereyra, as well as Deeney, were the main strikers last year,” said Sánchez Flores.

“So we can’t complain too much because we have the same players. Of course it is much better when we also have Welbeck, more chances, but really important is that they are good players, not how many players we have.”

We Campaign: Everyone’s Welcome At Watford

Watford FC is proud to launch the We campaign, encouraging inclusivity and tackling discrimination directly.

We want everyone to know they’re welcome at WatfordWe care about how people feel when they talk to usWe respect everyone’s right to be differentWe trust others to feel the same as we do about being inclusiveWe believe what we do can help encourage others to do the right thingWe unite against hate crime and discriminatory behaviour of any kindWe support calling out discrimination quickly, and will work directly with the Police to educate or prosecute offenders

We means everyone; players, ex-players, staff, supporters, the local communityWe can make a difference by being different; acting quickly and being consistent in our reporting is a great startWe want to tackle all forms of hate crime – on all days, not just matchdaysWe will take all reports seriously and act quickly to get meaningful resultsWe are delighted to be working directly in partnership with Herts Police Hate Crime team

Club captain Troy Deeney backs the campaign and thinks it will help to ensure reports of discrimination are followed through to prosecution.

“We’ve really taken it upon ourselves to try and close the circle in terms of the reaction to a hate crime and getting something meaningful done at the other end by working with the police,” he said.

“We want to turn it into reporting it, into linking up with Herts police hate crime unit to finish it off and show people our results at the end of it.

“There’s no easy answer, there’s no quick fix and it is an education and a generational thing that we’re going to have to learn to put out of society not just in football, but if we’re sitting around saying football doesn’t play a massive part in UK culture, we’re being very naive.”

Sergeant Luke Mitchell, the community safety sergeant for Watford and Three Rivers, has been working closely with the club to help make this campaign a reality.

“We’re really pleased to be working together with Watford Football Club on this project, which will ensure we continue to eliminate hate crime not only in sport, but from our communities. The message is clear: Watford welcomes everyone and is a safe place to live and visit,” he said.

“We want people to enjoy watching football and visit our town knowing that it is a safe and friendly environment, where hate crime in all its forms – race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity – is not tolerated.”

“Everyone, from the playing staff to police, stands united against hate crime.”

Help us identify offenders fast. Call out discrimination on your social media using: #watfordfc #BuzzOff.